Hi Maria

I must apologize for not having any progress on partons. It is not that I have given up on the project. Quite the opposite, I feel so much time has been put into the project, your time and my time and to a lesser extent Nicolas', that it will be foolish to give up without making a conclusive statement: does it work or not?

Yet, I also recognize that there is a long way to go before I can make such a statement, and I feel the short-term pressure to give Andrei some result, any result. Thus, I started working on another wilson-loop related project immediately after the mirror-symmetry presentation, thinking that I can quickly produce a string of good results that will keep Andrei quiet for a few weeks, and when he's quietened down I will go back to partons. Just last week, I found out I have to submit a pre-thesis report of this wilson-loop project to a committee in one month's time from today, and then make an oral defense. I'm not sure I can make this deadline, since this project is only half-baked. So I'm feeling a bit unsettled right now, and I'm pushing myself hard on this project.

Sorry for rambling. And I beg your patience with the partons.

Princeton hasn't been the same without you.